[kennethwfd]

Just brought Fuji HS20 and here are what I consider the best three bird shots from my first use of the camera - I realise that the crop of the hen blackbird is unbalanced - too much to the rear rather than the frount. No post processing apart from crop & resize

[speckled wood]

Not bad shots, you will find it easier to get good shots when the lighter nights (and days come), my HS20 is presently in hibernation.

[kennethwfd]

while I appreciate "not bad", prefer something more definite.

Attatched 3 more, these have been taken with a canon 500d and Sigma 150 - 500, my first attempts with this lens

The canon was an unplanned purchase on the bay, and because it was listed under 35mm equipment, hence attracting few bids. Could probably resell it at a profit. Collected the Sigma locally.

Realise that the branches are in the way with the blackbird shot, but this is what happened. I was shooting several shots of the pigeon, stopped, began to turn, and there was the blackbird. I have seen comments regarding softness of the Sigma at 500mm, here was a bird at close range, but if I had moved, it would have probably flown away, so decided to shoot there and then. After all, its only a practice shot

Like the comments on photo critique on this forum

http://photocamel.com/forum/photogra...important.html

ps no pp applied apart from conversion RAW to JPEG, crop & resize. Could I edit out the branches in the way?

[spock]

something more than not to bad you say, well for me, looking at these three shots, they are soft,under exsposed,not sharp,and quite a lot of noise,but, you might be exspecting to much from the kit that you are shooting with,
anyway, good luck and keep trying,

[kennethwfd]

thanks, the "not bad" comment was made by speckled wood re the HS20 pics, the second 3 with the 500 + sigma are the ones you are referring to? How much would PP address these issues.

The weather did not help - at the moment a couple of hours of hazy sunshine a week if lucky

The first & third were shot at full 500mm, the second closer. is there less softness as there appears to be an issue with softness at full zoom with the Sigma

It was the first attempt with the Sigma lens, who needs a gym - just carry a Bigma and use it

[kennethwfd]

RTFM! found OS switched to off which obviously did not help above 3.

Today's offering Canon 500 + Sigma 150 - 500, did some tweaking via Gimp

[RyanEustace]

Here's my effort

1) The crop was too tight i thought, so i just extended the canvas and clone stamped the background in (i guess you wouldn't have to do this if you have the original)

2) I cloned stamped out the the little branches and twigs (rather crudely), but you could take more time to do this.

3) Added a touch of sharpening and contrast

One thing i did notice is that you levels are too far in, i.e. you have blown whites and complete blacks, i don't know about Gimp, but with Photoshop if you hold down alt while moving the sliders it shows you the pixels your affecting.

On the whole though a much better photo than the previous ones :)

[kennethwfd]

thanks for the above. Two more, have I focused on the feeder as the Greenfinch seems OK, but not the Siskin - motion blur? Shot RAW, JPEG conversion + resize. Am planning to try OS position 2 when I get another chance to practice to see whether any camera shake - of some 50 pics taken, 5 are so blurred as to be useless - is part of the problem

[kennethwfd]

tried to upload the pic I wanted, does the siskin suffer from motion blur?

[Roy C]

Originally Posted by kennethwfd

tried to upload the pic I wanted, does the siskin suffer from motion blur?

This was shot at 1/125 sec and 500mm which probably accounts for the extreme softness. I also see you were at f11 which is a waste of time stopping down as much for a shot like this, I am sure you would have done a lot better had you opened the lens up and had a faster shutter speed. Opening up a bit would also help to blur the wall more.

[john-henry]

Originally Posted by kennethwfd

tried to upload the pic I wanted, does the siskin suffer from motion blur?

I think you just missed focus on the Siskin, it looks sharper behind it.

I've had the 150-500, it's not a bad lens at all, stick it on f8 and leave it there and if you put it on a tripod turn the OS off.

And of course keep shooting away to get used to it, it does take a little time to get used to new equipment.

[kennethwfd]

that's my opinion too, probably using central AF point did not work in this case, which is why the wall is in better focus, used the central AF point on the starlings eye, which as it was stationary worked.

Had no idea pic was taken at only 1/125, set shutter to 1/500, will follow Roy's suggested settings when some better weather comes. At least its a neighbour's bird feeder

[Roy C]

Originally Posted by kennethwfd

that's my opinion too, probably using central AF point did not work in this case, which is why the wall is in better focus, used the central AF point on the starlings eye, which as it was stationary worked.

Kenneth are you saying that you used the centre point but did not focus on the birds eye/head?, for bird photography you should always put the selected focus point over the eye of a bird - if the eye/head is not in focus then the shot will never work.

[kennethwfd]

Originally Posted by Roy C

Kenneth are you saying that you used the centre point but did not focus on the birds eye/head?, for bird photography you should always put the selected focus point over the eye of a bird - if the eye/head is not in focus then the shot will never work.

thanks, I know that already

[kennethwfd]

another attempt with the starling. Cropped, gave it a quick fix & sharpened it in PS (have not learned clone stamp to edit out twigs

[Musoman]

Regarding the Sigma....For the small size of the photos, they looks pretty good. But i'd like to see some at reasonbly larger sizes ...say A4 ( 11" x 8 " thereabouts ). The reason is that downsizing photos will always make them look better.

Also, the 500mm sigma zooms seem to be at their best around f8, so try that. At your chosen ISO 400, you will even get a faster shutter, as you know. That can only help things where birds are concerned

Having used a 150-500 in the past ( which i like a lot by the way ), this comes from experience. Switch OS off if using tripods

[kennethwfd]

are you referring to the squirrel pics? Agree re size, but this forum will not allow hi res pics to be posted. as per Mike Atkinson's advice, went to local lake, the weather was overcast, so tried various settings, one of the best (IMO) was this Mallard duck.

I have not managed to master cropping in PS, use Ulead Photoimpact for cropping & resizing - although I find its enhancement tools pretty useless, and the size of what is saved seems at varience with what it states - the stated resolution was 1,000kb, it actually is 136kb

So it appears I am on the right road with the Sigma, have set my sights on a Canon 100 - 400 and Fuji XS1, but currently do not have any avaliable funds for more camera equipment, the reason I brought the Canon 500 was that it was listed on eBay under 35mm film cameras, and attracted only a few bids - from £199 to £255. Browsing listings its amazing how poor quality some listings are to the point of "well, I don't know what this is, so don't ask" re an old camera lens which has the make and focal length clearly marked

[PhotographyExpert]

nice shots....i really appreciate

[RyanEustace]

I'd say the mallard is lacking contrast and theres not a fat deal you can do about it in post processing. The thing to do in this case for example would be to try and find a female mallard with its muddy brown colour against a different colour background, sand or sky or lush green grass etc. This would make the bird 'pop' out alot more in comparison to a brown bird stood on muddy grass in dull light.

Another point would be the lack of catch light in the birds eye, obviously if the photos taken in cloudy conditions your not going to catch light, but bear it in mind as it adds to the eye which as you already know is the most important part.

The crop seems a little tight to me, and id say it needs extending to the left and up, a small increase in right and down would also help it out i think. The problem is though that the background is cluttered and not plain so extending the crop is only going to add to the potential distractions. Aim for a plain background if you can get it :)


Ryan

[Musoman]

Originally Posted by kennethwfd

are you referring to the squirrel pics? Agree re size, but this forum will not allow hi res pics to be posted.

You can upload much bigger pics and much bigger res.

For example...

[Musoman]

I agree with Ryan about the cropping and rather horrid background of the Mallard. Its all about learning, and most of us still are

But the processing can be improved to a small degree.

A tweak of your Mallard, although crop and background have to remain

[kennethwfd]

what did you do to the mallard? I think the colour of the legs too vivid - i keep domestic ducks as well. Attatched pic of the same batch of a jackdaw, no cropping or PP applied, merely resized (original file size 11.4MB). As the sun is shining, I'm tempted to take an hour out & go back for another try, the pond is only a couple of miles up the road & can be there within 10 minutes

[Musoman]

With the Mallard, i was just rushing it through CS4 to bring it to life a bit, but its easily remedied.

[digiscope09]

Earlier in this Thread, comment was made about focussing on the bird's eye as the sharpest point in a photo. This is okay when the bird is a reasonable distance however using this technique up close means that much of the object is cut out of the shot.

In another forum, someone gave a great tip about focussing on the upper chest of the bird rather than the eye as you get more of the complete object in the photo and as the eye is generally in line vertically with the chest when a bird is looking at you, the eye remains sharp.

It does not work in every shot, as sometimes the bird can be "pushing" forward" however overall, I have been happier with my photos since using this technique.

finno

[Roy C]

Originally Posted by finno

Earlier in this Thread, comment was made about focussing on the bird's eye as the sharpest point in a photo. This is okay when the bird is a reasonable distance however using this technique up close means that much of the object is cut out of the shot.

In another forum, someone gave a great tip about focussing on the upper chest of the bird rather than the eye as you get more of the complete object in the photo and as the eye is generally in line vertically with the chest when a bird is looking at you, the eye remains sharp.

It does not work in every shot, as sometimes the bird can be "pushing" forward" however overall, I have been happier with my photos since using this technique.

finno

The normal method with DSLR when the bird is large in the frame is to select a single focus point other than the central one, that way you can focus on the eye and still get all of the bird in the shot. This is very easy to do 'on the fly' with my Camera(s) - Can you not do this with your Camera?